Plot[]
John Smith (Ruiz) is a 14-year-old Guatemalan boy raised in Lake St. Louis, Missouri by his adoptive parents, Brian (Lucas) and Joyce Smith (Metz). Though they are loving and supportive, John struggles with feelings of abandonment from his birth parents, and rebels against his parents and teachers.
In school, John's class is assigned to give a presentation about their family backgrounds. On his day to present, John admits he did not do the assignment. His basketball coach, who had promised him a starting position, warns John that if he gets a failing grade, he will be benched. John later gives a half-hearted presentation, saying that everyone already knows he is adopted and he does not know much about his true background.
Later, John and his friends Josh and Reiger go out onto a frozen lake, ignoring a neighbor's warning. The resident calls the police, and all three boys fall through the ice. Josh and Reiger manage to swim to the surface and are rescued by first responders. Two rescuers dive in, but are unable to find John. As they are about to give up, one of the rescuers, Tommy Shine (Colter), hears a voice telling him to go back. Thinking it is his chief, he tries again, and manages to lift John to the surface.
With no pulse or breath, John is taken to the local hospital, where an emergency team works frantically to save his life. After John still fails to register a pulse, the attending physician Dr. Sutterer gives Joyce a chance to say goodbye. A weeping Joyce cradles her son in her arms, pleading with the Holy Spirit to not let John die, at which point a faint pulse registers.
John finds himself as a soul heading into the "Great Beyond". Unwilling to die, he tries to escape but ends up in the "Great Before" where soul counselors, all named Jerry, set up young souls for life on Earth. John poses as an instructor who is set to train the souls and is assigned 22, a cynical soul who has remained in the Great Before for many years and sees no point in living on Earth. 22 reveals that she has a badge that fills up with traits. She needs to find her "spark" to complete it and says she will give it to John so that he can return home.
John tries to get 22 to find something to be passionate about but is unsuccessful. With no other options, she takes him out to "the zone", an area that people enter when their passion sets them into a euphoric trance. It also houses the lost souls who become obsessed with minor things. They meet Moonwind, a sign twirler who enters the zone to rescue lost souls. He agrees to help Joe return to his body and they learn that he has fallen into a coma. John excitedly hops back to Earth but accidentally brings 22 with him, resulting in 22 entering his body and John ending up in the body of a homeless hospital cat. Meanwhile, Terry, an accountant in the Great Before, learns that John is missing and convinces the Jerrys to let her go look for him to bring him back.
22 and John escape the hospital. Initially frightened, 22 calms down and begins finding joy in the simple things in life. They head to John's house where his adoptive mother Joyce turns John's possible recovery into an obsession, harassing his health care professionals and alienating those around her, including her husband. In a heated moment, Joyce tells Brian that if not for her, John would be dead. After a brief and hurtful rebuttal, Brian storms off. Before Moonwind can swap their bodies back, 22 has an epiphany and decides she wants to live. She runs and John gives chase, but Terry catches up and brings both back to the Great Before, where 22 sees that her badge has been filled out. However, John tells her that she was using his experiences and that it does not matter. Angry, she tosses the badge at him and disappears to the zone. John learns from a Jerry that instead of a life's purpose, a spark simply means that a soul is ready to live. He heads back to Earth and recovers, but does not feel right about what happened.
Changed by 22's experience, John drowns himself and enters the zone to search for 22, who has become a lost soul. He tries to return her the badge, but 22 remains hopeless and broken about her purpose. Using a small maple seed that caught 22's attention before, John convinces 22 that she is ready to live, and she returns to normal. With her badge back, John rides with her as far as he can as 22 finally enters Earth. As he prepares to head into the Great Beyond, John is stopped by a Jerry who tells him that he has inspired them and will give him another chance at life. John thanks them and returns to the living, now with the intent to live his life to the fullest.
He then is revived and slowly regains consciousness, reliving his accident. He hears his mother's voice and opens his eyes, with full cognitive ability. A few days later, he is discharged from the hospital and returns to school.
John's return, though welcomed by many, is met with some resentment by others, who question why John was spared while their own loved ones died. This weighs on John's mind, and he returns to the lake, where he sees Tommy Shine, and thanks him for saving his life. Tommy admits that he did not believe in God until after a series of protracted events since John's accident, and all he did was pull John from the water.
John reconciles his survival with a renewed sense of purpose in his life and rebuilds his relationships with those he had been alienating. An epilogue reveals that John is pursuing a career in ministry after graduating from high school.
Cast[]
Live action[]
- Chrissy Metz as Joyce Smith, a highly devout Christian woman, Brian's wife and John's adoptive mother.
- Josh Lucas as Brian Smith, Joyce's husband and John's adoptive father.
- Topher Grace as Pastor Jason Noble, Paula’s husband, the father of their son and daughter and the local pastor who tries to connect with the youth.
- Mike Colter as Tommy Shine, a first responder who had a moment with God to save John.
- Marcel Ruiz as John Smith, Joyce and Brian's Guatemalan 14-year-old adoptive son whose soul gets separated from his body and makes a miraculous recovery.
- Sam Trammell as Dr. Kent Sutterer, Abby’s father.
- Dennis Haysbert as Dr. Garrett
- Maddy Martin as Abby Sutterer, Dr. Sutterer's daughter and John's love interest.
- Isaac Kragten as Josh, one of John's friends.
- Nikolas Dukic as Reiger, one of John's friends.
- Travis Bryant as Jonah, one of John’s friends.
- Taylor Mosby as Chayla, one of John's friends.
- Ali Skovbye as Emma, one of John's friends.
- Chuck Shamata as Fire Chief
- Nancy Sorel as Mrs. Abbott, the Family History teacher at the Christian middle school John and his friends attend.
- Lisa Durupt as Paula Noble, Pastor Jason's wife and mother of his son and daughter.
- Rebecca Staab as Cindy Rieger.
- Graham Norton as Moonwind, a spiritual sign twirler.
Animated[]
- Tina Fey as 22, a soul trapped in the Great Before with a dim view of life.
- Rachel House as Terry, a soul counter in the Great Beyond.
- Richard Ayoade, Alice Braga, Wes Studi, Fortune Feimster and Zenobia Shroff as Jerry, soul counselors in the Great Before.